limited employment of Chinese contract coolies, said,
"the truth is that, from a political standpoint, the unlimited
introduction of the Chinese into these islands would be a great mistake.
I believe the objection on the part of the Filipinos to such a course to
be entirely logical and justified. The development of the islands by
Chinamen would be at the expense of the Filipino people, and they may
very well resent such a suggestion."[86]

Governor Taft's opinion is strongly supported by the special
commissioner of the American Federation of Labor, who, after inquiries
in the district surrounding Manila, reports as follows:--

"Their reluctance to work, continually harped upon by many employers, is
simply the natural reluctance of a progressive people to work for low
wages under bad treatment. When wages rise above the level of the barest
and poorest necessaries of life, and where treatment is fair, there
Filipinos are at work in any numbers required."[87]

The situation here is similar to that of the negroes. In order to get
two hundred steady workers at high wages it is necessary to try out a
thousand or more. But the reports of the Philippine Commission show that
with the process of selection which their engineers can pursue by means
of the high wages on government work the results are satisfactory.[88]

"Of course," continues Mr. Rosenberg in his report, "the Filipino worker
cannot successfully compete--cheap as he can live--with the Chinese
standard of living, hence the unceasing vilification of the Filipino
workers by those employers and their following, who, seeing near by the
unlimited supply of cheap Chinese labor, wish these islands to be
thrown open to such labor, not only for the purpose of reducing the
small wages of the Filipinos, but also to reduce that of the Chinese
laborers now here. As one employer stated to me, 'We want more Chinese,
to keep them here for one or two years, then ship them back and get
another lot, for the Chinese I have here now are becoming too
independent and want more pay.'"

=Free Labor.=--The free laborer is not compelled by law to work. Then why
should he work? Why does he work? The answer is found within himself. He
wants something that he cannot get without working. Though this may seem
a trifling question and a self-evident answer, the question and answer
are the foundation of all questions of free institutions. For the
non-working races and classes or the spasmodic and u